Billy Graham Center
Archives

Jim Elliot Quote

The best source for quotes by Jim Elliot are two books. The first is his biography by his wife
Elisabeth Elliot, In The Shadow of the Almighty, published by Harper and Row in 1958. It contains extensive quotes from
his personal journals. The second book is a published, abridged version of the journals themselves, The
Journals of Jim Elliot, edited by Elisabeth Elliot and published by Fleming H. Revell in 1978.

The Archives contains the actual journals of Jim Elliot in
Collection 277.
Researchers use a microfilm
copy of these journals and this microfilm can be borrowed
through interlibrary
loan.
The most frequently asked about quote is,

"He is no fool who
gives what he
cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

This can be found in the October 28, 1949 entry on page 174 (Chapter 4) of
the 1978 hardback edition of the Journal and on page 108 (Chapter 11)
of the 1958 hardback edition of Shadow of the Almighty. The quote is
also used in the prologue of Shadow on page 15. Below is a reproduction
of the actual entry for October 28, 1949 in its entirety from the journal (Collection
277, Box 1, Folder 8). The underlining, the bracket and and the asterisk were
probably added at a later time after Jim Elliot's death.

Philip Henry (1631-1696), father of well known preacher and Bible commentator
Matthew Henry (1662-1714), was credited with a very similar saying. In The
Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Matthew Henry..., published in 1833, is
a biography of Philip by Matthew. (The original biography had apparently been
published in 1699.) On page 35 of the volume, Matthew is recalling his father's
acts of kindness and charity and how he used to say, "He is no fool who
parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with that which he cannot lose."

Please be aware that the purpose of this page is to provide information on
some of the most relevant Archives holdings relating to this often-asked question.
Because of staff and time limitations, the BGC archivists can spend no more
than a half-hour helping an individual researcher; we have to focus our efforts
on gathering the material and making it available. In order to find all the
materials in the Archives on this particular topic, you will need to personally
go through the guides to the various Archives collections available at this
Web site and in the Archives Reading Room in the Billy Graham Center building
in Wheaton, Illinois. If your request will take longer than the half hour we
can provide, you will either need to come to the Archives yourself to do the
necessary research in our collections, arrange for someone to come and do the
research for you, or pay to use the Archives' research
services.

You can also do further independent searching of the online
database to explore what the Archives has on a wide variety of subjects.
You will find only a very small sampling of the Archives actual documents on
this Web site. Most of our Web pages only describe what is at the Archives in
Wheaton. In most cases you must visit the Archives to use our collections, unless
a collection (or portion of it) is available through inter-library
loan or as a short-term
loan for a fee. You may also find it helpful to visit Wheaton College's
online catalog
to its libraries and archives (including the Billy Graham Center Archives).